Shari’s Life: Iceland Holiday Part 1

I am now back from my holiday to Iceland which was just as amazing as I thought it would be! If you are looking for a holiday destination, I highly recommend it! The country is beautiful and the people are so lovely and welcoming! 

I have split my post into 3 as it was very long! I hope you all enjoy my account of our adventures in the land of Fire and Ice!

Day 1: Travelling

We set off at 7 in the morning to get to Gatwick Airport for 8.40am. This would give us plenty of time to check in and go through security (and allowed for train delays!) and also grab a bite to eat before the flight at 1pm. The airport was extremely busy, but we managed to find a Wetherspoons to get some breakfast at. We had a quick look around the duty free but didn’t buy anything. Whittards were giving out samples of their hot chocolate though which was really yummy! I’m going to order some online when autumn arrives! 

The flight itself was uneventful. I really don’t like flying so I had my eyes shut for take-off and landing, and was jumping at every little sound in the cabin. I felt sorry for the poor lady sitting next to me! Sarah had the window seat but I did manage to look out as we approached our destination! One thing I have noticed about flying is how tiring it is. It was only a two hour 40mins+ flight but we were pretty much ready for a nap when we touched down! Maybe it’s because neither of us are frequent flyers? This was Sarah’s first commercial flight and the last time I flew commercially was for Japan in 2015. We arrived at the airport we were met by the taxi transfer and taken to our hotel in Reykjavik. This was another 40 minutes. The taxi driver pointed out landmarks as we went and told us more about the volcano that was erupting. When we reached Reykjavik, it felt almost surreal to be surrounded by so many mountains so close. We have the south downs near where we live but you can really only see them when its raining! These were so close and so beautiful! 

After checking into the hotel we did a bit of exploring and looked for the pick up point for the next day’s excursion so we knew where to go. We then grabbed some sandwiches and snacks from a local store to have back at the hotel as neither of us felt like going out for dinner. One thing we had been told was how expensive Iceland was. If I’m honest, I didn’t pay that as much attention as I probably should have as the UK isn’t exactly a cheap place to be at the moment either! We were both floored when we paid for the food and it came to £21 ($24).  There is a reason for the high costs which actually makes a lot of sense and I will explain this in my second post as this is when we learned about it! After eating we revised the food budget and checked online for some more economic food options which turned out to be the Dominoes 13 minutes away from the hotel! We also popped to the supermarket and got some rolls and cheese to make lunch for the excursion the next day.  

This is pretty much all we did in day 1 as we were tired from the travelling. The next day was the full day excursion which we were both looking forward too, and the next post will cover this and include the photos I took too!